Brunch
Recap The episode starts with three squabbles between several members of the group, joined by Ted's parents. The episode recounts the development of the arguments, which cause to a waitress behind their table to drop and break a tray of dishes. The Marshall and Lily Part Ted has flown his parents, Alfred and Virginia, to his apartment as a 30th-anniversary gift. As Future Ted narrates, his parents have an unfortunate habit of avoiding talking, or even mentioning, unpleasant subjects. Ted's parents meet Lily and Marshall, who have just broken up, and they invite Lily to dinner with them. At first, Lily is hesitant to join them, seeing as it would make her encounter with Marshall awkward, but changes her mind when Marshall shows no signs of lingering feelings for her. She gets back at him during dinner by showing herself in a stunning evening dress which accentuates her breasts, and by acting provocatively so as to turn Marshall on. Marshall decides to get back at her the following day, at brunch, by presenting himself in pants with unzippable kneelines, which he unzips to unleash his calves at Lily, which she finds irresistible. The two have sex in the bathroom, but far from being a reconciling act, the two argue about who seduces whom. The Barney Part Barney is shocked to learn that Ted has not talked about him to his parents, so he decides to take matters into his own hands. Ted defends himself by stating that he and his dad are only able to talk to each other about baseball. When Barney meets Ted's parents, he makes his utmost to get along with them, making a better impression even than Ted's girlfriend Robin, noticeable when he manages to change dinner reservations to a fully-booked restaurant. Following dinner, Barney invites the group to drinks at McLaren's, where Ted's father Alfred joins him. Alfred even becomes a wingman to Barney, but the night goes wrong when Barney finds Alfred making out with Wendy the Waitress. Ted is thunderstruck at hearing this, but although he decides to confront his father, he is unable to talk about anything but baseball. The Me and Robin Part Excited to meet Ted's parents for the first time, Robin is worried that she's not going to come off well. Ted gives her a heads-up about his mother, who is apt to prompt her into settling down with Ted and having kids, but things take an unexpected twist that night at dinner when Virginia shows no intention of bringing this matter up, and even more unexpectedly, Robin is disappointed by this as she suddenly finds herself craving for Virginia's desire for her wanting to settle down with Ted. At brunch the following morning, Robin has an outburst at Virginia, which prompts Ted's mother into asking her if something's wrong. Robin reveals her new desires to Virginia, but Virginia explains to Robin that there's something she doesn't know yet. The three squabbles are re-brought together at this point just as they are first seen at the start of the episode - the waitress drops the dishes. Ted's father promptly stands up to help her, calling her "sweetheart" in the process. This makes Ted lash out at his father and makes him reveal the events of the previous night to his wife. But Ted is confused to find his mother unshocked by the fact that her husband hooked up with another woman. At this point, Robin prompts Mrs. Mosby into telling her son the truth, and Virginia and Alfred finally explain to Ted how they are now divorced. Needless to say, Ted is left shocked by this fact, and he confronts both his parents about how and why they have kept this hidden from him. Barney blurts out how he remembers Alfred mentioning he was divorced the previous night, and Marshall and Lily promise each other to try and keep their distances from each other and remain on amicable terms. Alfred explains how their relationship, although wonderful, had to come to an end when the parties involved realised how different they are from one another. They do, however, promise Ted full disclosure in future, but go back on their word when Ted asks for news about his grandmother, who has previously died. Neither Virginia nor Alfred divulge this information to Ted - Virginia heads off to the juice station, and Alfred falls back to baseball talk. Continuity *Barney tells Ted's parents that he works in a homeless shelter where he serves the food. This was true, however, he, Ted and Robin got kicked out, as seen in . Future References (Contains Spoilers) *In , Lily mentions the time she and Marshall had sex in the bathroom, as seen in this episode. *Barney's attempt to seduce Wendy the Waitress, which is unsuccesful due to Ted's dad "rack-jacking" him, had come to fruition earlier in 2005, as explained in . *Barney has the same pose in the picture taken in this episode that he has . *Ted mentions his cousin Stacy and her six kids, whom he spends Christmas dinner with in . Ted's mother also mentions Stacy being pregnant, as seen in that episode. *The "Single Stamina and Couples' Coma" theories mentioned in are upheld here. Ted and Robin are too tired to go to the bar, while Ted's dad (who was divorced at the time) agreed to go with Barney to McLaren's. *Ted points out that Barney always uses 83% when he makes up a statistic, as seen in , where he says that there was a "Great Dude Shortage" in New York City in 1883, , where he puts on make-up and claims to be an 83-year old time traveller to pick up women, and , where he claims that a woman decides within 8.3 seconds of meeting a man whether she's going to sleep with him. Gallery 2x03.jpg|The gang and Ted's parents at brunch. Vlcsnap-2010-09-07-04h01m16s243.png Vlcsnap-2010-09-07-04h01m30s132.png Vlcsnap-2010-09-07-04h03m14s144.png Virginia Mosby.png Brunch photo.png Memorable Quotes Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors Allusions and Outside References *When Ted is talking to his father in the hallway, he asks if he thinks "Cerrano" has a chance for the RBI title. This is a reference to the movie , a movie about the , which is Ted's favorite team. In the movie, Pedro Cerrano is a slugger played by . *In arguing their post-breakup division of belongings, Marshall claims that a box set he gave Lily is actually full of CDs. *The usage of Black Title cards for each segment is reminiscent of the movie , which is told in a similar fashion. Music *At dinner, Barney plays 's , the Appassionata. Other Notes *In this episode, Ted's father (briefly) recounts to Ted how he met his mother. Between Ted's father's and Ted's encounters with Virginia and Robin respectively, several similarities can noted: **Both met their partner for the first time at an Irish bar; **Both males were head-in-the-clouds hopeless romantics who fantasized about having families with their partners, whilst the females were reluctant to become parents; **Both males decided not to give up their first failed attempt and kept pursuing the female until they finally got together; **Both females showed second thoughts about their relationship with their respective males **Although not noted in this episode, Ted eventually splits up with his dream girl Robin just as his father divorced his mother. Guests *Michael Gross - Alfred Mosby *Cristine Rose - Virginia Mosby *Charlene Amoia - Wendy the Waitress *Noel True - Waitress Reception Staci Krause of gave the episode 8.9/10, calling it one of the better episodes of the season.http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/07/17/how-i-met-your-mother-brunch-review References External links * * * uk:Brunch Category:Episodes Category:season 2